Nicobarese oppose proposal for three wildlife sanctuaries
ENVIRONMENT – BIODIVERSITY
14 MAY 2026
- Even as the Calcutta High Court is set to hear challenges to the Centre’s Great Nicobar Island (GNI) project over allegations that the Forest Rights Act was violated while obtaining locals’ consent for it, the tribal council in Nicobar has now flagged further violations of the law in the government’s notification of three wildlife sanctuaries in the Little Nicobar, Menchal, and Meroe islands.
Notification of three sanctuaries
- The ₹92,000-crore Great Nicobar Island (GNI) project to build an international container transhipment port, an airport, and a greenfield tourist township on the Great Nicobar Island.
- It would impact coral colonies, and nesting habitats of the leatherback turtle and the megapode.
- The Union government, in October 2022, notified the three sanctuaries to conserve these species, in parts of the Little Nicobar Island, Meroe Island and Menchal Island – all north of GNI.
Opposition by Tribal Council
- However, since August 2022, the Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar has been writing to the Union government and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (A&NI) administration, flagging that the process to notify these sanctuaries had been initiated without giving notice to members of their community who have lived on and maintained these islands for generations.
- The three sites, Meroe and Menchal islands are of “high cultural and spiritual significance” to the Nicobarese; they believe the sites are home to the spirits of their ancestors.
- The sanctuaries would encroach upon their pre-existing rights on these lands, which they have been exercising to hold ritual hunts, maintain plantations, worship their ancestors, and conserve wildlife species around them.
- The council was responding to a notice for a meeting of the committee constituted to determine the eco-sensitive zone around these three sanctuaries — the Leatherback Turtle Sanctuary in parts of Little Nicobar Island, the Megapode Sanctuary in all of Menchal Island, and the Coral Sanctuary on the entire Meroe Island.
- In the letter, the council said its chairman was not consulted before the committee was formed — he was merely informed that he was part of the committee, that too a month later.
- The Nicobar administration, in May 2025, issued a “clarification” noting that the declaration of the three sanctuaries would not affect the “hunting rights conferred on the Scheduled Tribes of the Nicobar Islands”.
Appeal to Minister
- Congress leader and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, asserting that consent procedures under the Forest Rights Act were violated in the case of the GNI project.
- He noted that the consent should have been obtained from the Tribal Council and not the Gram Sabhas, and also questioned how the government-controlled Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti could grant consent for the project on behalf of the Shompen, a particularly vulnerable tribal group.
- Mr. Ramesh asked Mr. Oram to direct the A&NI administration to withdraw the clearances issued under the law.
